my+portfolio+(chapter+1)

managing the digital firm: through studying this chapter i learned that **IT is important why?? there are many reasons: 1.facilitates communication between employees and orgnizations. 2.facililtates education process. 3.The largest portion of many entrprises's capital investment is spent on IT. 4.without IT we can't do our business. 5.if it is used wisely it can increase profitability ,revenues,productivity,and produce and sustain a long term comptetive advantages in certain markets. 6.it is used as an essential ingrediant to success. then we learned that** Nicolas carr said that "IT doesn't matter" he was right in the part that to be superior IT is not the magic that will diffrentiate you between your competitors ...the secret is in how to use IT effectively,he conclude that a firm should follow rather than lead IT in their industries.
 * one of the most important changes in business environment is the growth of information-knowledge based economy where information and knowledge are key the ingredients in creating wealth..and the fact that people nowadays are going toward this sector (information based economy) increasing in the number of white collar...at the same time the number of blue collars is declining..Today no one go to work in farming or in a factory after graduation.
 * another important change that happened in the business environment( due to IT)is the emergence of **DIGITAL FIRMS**...A digital firm is a firm that all it's significant relationships with it's business partners customers suppliers are digitally enabled and maintained,and core business processes are accomplished through digital networks....almost all of companies today are trasnforming from being traditional into digital ones...
 * to fully understand an information system, yoy have to recognize that there are 2 definitions or prespectives for an information system : **technical and** **business approach**...technical prespective sees the I.S as a set of integrated elements that store collect process dessiminate information throughout the organization for several purposes..and that any I.S consists of 3 main activities **input output process and feedback.**
 * be careful that we we say I.S we mean a formal orgnizational computer based information system.
 * any CBIS cosists of:software ,hardware,persware,network ,technology.
 * however the business approach sees the information system in 3 dimensions:1.organization 2.management 3.technology...
 * a forth dimensions is strategy.
 * what is important here that the individuals in an organization must undestand the relationships between all these dimensions of an I,S to become a digital firm and to acheive the expected benefits from investing in IT.
 * recent researches indicate that firms that invest in complentary assets (such as training the employees on new technologies ,changing the firm poltics and culture that resist change,channging the management style )will get high return on their investement in IT.
 * From 10 years till our day a new approach for an IS appears this contemporary approach is called the **sociotechnical approach.**
 * the sociotechnical approach consists of 2 perspectives for any IS **the technical** one and the **behavioral** one.
 * the technical approach focuses on the mathematical based models to study the IS the disciplines that contribute to the technical approach are: CS,MS,OR.
 * While the behavioral approach focuses on the behavioral issues that arises during the installation and the long term maintenance of information systems.
 * the behavioral approach doesn't ignore technology but it focuses more on non technical solutions.
 * disciplines that contribue to the behavioral approach are Economics,Psychology,sociology